SolarByTheWatt.com » Lowest Prices Per Watt

Solar Panels – All Models, All Data Including Efficiency in One Database

SolarByTheWatt_com — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:01:05 +0000

The PVbin.com website aims to list all commercially available solar panels (photovoltaic modules) in one consolidated database so that engineers, project developers and renewable energy enthusiasts can easily look up and compare data on the different models.

The web site allows a search based on different parameters of the solar panels including power, voltages, currents, efficiency.

Efficiency of solar panels is important data about the components that is always researched by photovoltaic components buyers but the only way till now to research it is to go panel by panel and open their datasheets. The PVbin.com database displays the efficiency reading for all panels in the search results and can sort the panels by the most efficient one.

After searching / filtering on certain criteria the user can click on a link to the page of a particular panel model and checkout more detailed data about the panel.

Support this free to use solar panels database by visiting it.

Lowest Solar Panel Prices Per Watt 2009-10-20

SolarByTheWatt_com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:30:05 +0000

We are continuing our series of articles on lowest prices per watt for solar photovoltaic panels where every time we have changes in the price ranking we will publish a new article with corresponding date in the title.

We list the cheapest panels dollar per watt that we can find on the internet and through direct research. We also include listings of products our readers submit to us through the Contact Us form or in the comments. Representatives of the different vendors are welcome to submit info about their products too. Very differently from other “cheapest solar panels lists” out there we will not charge you for that and we will not tell you the list is already full – yep, this is what some publishers of lowest prices in solar have told some of the vendors of realistically the cheapest panels in certain sizes. Yeah, we had a good laugh listening to the story of one of the vendors here trying to get listed with a web page claiming to be a free survey of the lowest prices. While these vendors were not allowed to be listed their after being asked for money and told that the list is full already there are companies on their list that are listed twice.

We do not claim at all that these are research and results of an absolute character. That is, we realize that there might be products, vendors, pricing structures for certain types of projects and quantities that we are not able to identify through our effort.

That is why nobody should get offended that their product brand or vendor company is not included in our research or they are not ranked correctly because we have not found out about their lowest, low or otherwise competitive prices.

While we maintain that prices as dollar per Watt ($/Wp, dollar per Watt peak) is the number that will take the solar power industry to the stage of playing a major role of resolving the gigantic issues the US and the world have with securing clean, safe and abundant source of energy, we also realize that with many products groups prices reflect many other things than just willingness of the manufactures and the marketers to provide an affordable product.

Namely, different prices may reflect different quality and quality preference of the market – i.e. higher quality products may maintain relatively higher prices given all other factors being equal.

Different prices may reflect different costs to manufacture products of certain type of technology. We are well aware that this is especially true with solar panels. We will try, as effort grows to provide a way for our readers to be able to separate prices listed and researched for different underlying technologies of products.

In this edition of the lowest prices article for example we are separating in different tables the three most popular commercially available cell technologies on which solar photovoltaic modules are based: monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin-film. That should make it very easy for our readers to get to useful information about the competitors in the different technologies. Also it will give a chance for a vendor who offers a good price in one technology to not to be shadowed by a vendor with low price in the other technology.

We also have tried to include more sizes, that is make the list much longer in order to give chance for vendors that are not necessarily with the lowest price to show in the study. One thing you can expect in future editions is to see the lists broken down in different size ranges which should give even better chance for vendors to appear in their area of strength.

In any case if any reader, buyer or seller of solar products thinks that our best research effort has not presented certain vendors, brand or price – please, feel free to contact us and forward to us details of the the product and price you think we should list. We will add additional level to research to verify that such price is being offered on regular basis and will try to reflect this in our report.

The reason we believe prices in dollar per watt peak with solar photovoltaic modules is so critical for this industry to take off as a major player in resolving the energy issues the world has created for itself is that such price is a major factor in the economic efficiency of a solar power installation. See our article Economics of Solar Power on this.

Have in mind in addition to the very sharply falling prices of solar modules what else is driving the further acceptance of this clean energy technology is the government incentives programs that exist in different places in the world including incentives on federal level in the US in the form of a 30% tax credit on total installation costs and other different state level subsidies and feed in tariffs.

Here is or current ranking:

Monocrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, technology, Model, Brand,Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$2.25 / Wp, $416.25, 185W, Mono-crystalline, SMD185M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $405.00, 180W, Mono-crystalline, SMD180M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $540.00, 240W, Mono-crystalline, SMD240M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com (sizes over 190W from SolarMaxDirect.com are not UL listed)
(SolarMaxDirect’s prices for less than a container size of order are $2.70)

$3.20 / Wp, $544.00, 170W, Mono-crystalline, DMSOLAR 170 MONO, BrightWatts, DmSolar, http://www.dmsolar.com

$3.40 / Wp, $594.41, 175W, Mono-crystalline, NT-175U, Sharp, Infinigi, http://www.infinigi.com

$3.57 / Wp, $625.00, 175W, Mono-crystalline, SW175, Solar World, Backwoods Solar, http://www.backwoodssolar.com

Polycrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, technology, Model, Brand, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$2.25 / Wp, $427.50, 190W, Poly-crystalline, SMD190P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $416.25, 185W, Poly-crystalline, SMD185P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $405.00, 180W, Poly-crystalline, SMD180P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $393.75, 175W, Poly-crystalline, SMD175P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $382.50, 170W, Poly-crystalline, SMD170P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com
(sizes over 190W from SolarMaxDirect.com are not UL listed)
(SolarMaxDirect’s prices for less than a container size of order are $2.70)

$2.43 / Wp, $509.97, 210W, Poly-crystalline, REC210AE, REC, The Solar Biz, http://www.thesolarbiz.com

$2.43 / Wp, $533.97, 220W, Poly-crystalline, REC220AE, REC, The Solar Biz, http://www.thesolarbiz.com

$2.43 / Wp, $424.97, 175W, Poly-crystalline, BP 175B, BP Solar, The Solar Biz, http://www.thesolarbiz.com

$2.44 / Wp, $549.00, 225W, Poly-crystalline, REC EA US 225, REC, Sun Electronics, http://sunelec.com

$2.54 / Wp, $558.00, 220W, Poly-crystalline, REC EA US 220, REC, Sun Electronics, http://sunelec.com

$2.59 / Wp, $543.90, 210W, Poly-crystalline, REC210AE, REC, BeyondOilSolar, http://www.beyondoilsolar.com
(many REC sizes from BeyondOilSolar are at this price)

$2.60 / Wp, $312.00, 120W, Poly-crystalline, DMSOLAR 120 POLY, BrightWatts, DmSolar, http://www.dmsolar.com

$2.68 / Wp, $522.60, 195W, Poly-crystalline, ES-A-195-fa3b, Evergreen, Sun Electronics, http://sunelec.com

$2.89 / Wp, $635.80, 220W, Poly-crystalline, SCHOTT POLY 220, Schott, Affordable Solar, http://www.affordable-solar.com

$2.99 / Wp, $523.25, 175W, Poly-crystalline, PV-UD175MF5, Mitsubishi Solar, Affordable Solar, http://www.affordable-solar.com

Thin-film

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, technology, Model, Brand,Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$3.87 / Wp, $232, 60W, Thin-film, Kaneka, GSA-60, Living Off The Grid, http://livingoffthegrid.ecrater.com

$3.97 / Wp, $237.98W, Thin-film, Kaneka, GSA-60, Green Box Usa, http://www.greenboxusa.com

Feel free to send suggestions through comments on our articles or the Contact Us page.

Price, Dollar Per Watt for Large Solar Photovoltaic Projects

SolarByTheWatt_com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:52:12 +0000

A Review of Total Investment Cost, Dollar per Watt Peak and Euro per Watt Peak for Large Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant Projects.

A reader of SolarByTheWatt.com commented in a letter to us (via the Contact Us page/form) on how important it is for publications when price of solar photovoltaic is discussed – dollar per watt – to point out the difference between cost of solar just for the modules or panels and the cost of completing a whole system.

The price to complete a whole system in addition to the price of panels will include price of mounting, installation hardware, wiring, junction boxes, disconnects, price of the inverter or inverters, wiring and disconnect boxes from inverter to grid switch box, price of installation service (usually specifically trained and certified professionals are involved). In the case of a large scale projects the part of the project involving connection to the grid can be of substantial value too. In these project the price of the land used and all permits for the land and for the utility project also add to the cost.

While the break down of these expenses can be harder to study (one needs to find internal data from different projects) we thought that it is possible for many large project to find the overall costs and get to an indicative price per watt for solar power in terms of complete projects.

We also thought that focusing on as large projects as possible will let us minimize the error of rounding and approximation some of news articles might have made.

We have reviewed different announcements that indicate the price dollar per watt of complete projects.

Thought there is a lot of information about what the largest solar photovoltaic plants in the world are it has been difficult for us to find specific cost, investment information about many of them. The readers are welcome to contribute through comments or on our Contact Us page/form with links to articles specifying cost of projects.

Here is the table of results we have gathered:

Project	Peak Power, MWp	Cost, Euro, millions	Euro / Wp	US$ / Wp
Waldpolenz Solar Park	40	130	3.25	4.23
Amareleja, Moura, Portugal	62	250	4.03	5.24
SinAn Power Plant	24	110	4.58	5.96
Beneixama photovoltaic power plant	30	150	5.00	6.50
Arnedo Solar Plant	34	181	5.32	6.92
Nellis Solar Power Plant	14	77	5.49	7.14

In our results table you can see the name of the project included, peak power or the capacity of the power station in MW (MWp), investment cost in million of Euros – many of the large projects for which capacity and investment cost data was available were in Europe and the articles report the prices in Euros, cost Euro per watt peak, US dollar per watt peak – we used a 1.3 factor (close to the exchange rate at the moment EUR to USD) to get this number which we thought will be useful for anyone used to work in USD as a currency. We ordered the projects in ascending price per watt.

None of the prices we are seeing in the results are very surprising. Different articles mention about a commonly expected price of about US$ 6 – 8 per watt for industrial (utility) size projects. Many specialists involved in the industry, especially in Europe lately talk about bids that projects get in the range of 4 – 5 Euros per watt, approximately US$ 5 – 6.60 per watt.

Lowest Solar Panel Prices Per Watt 2009-02-24

Economics of Solar Power

Solar Energy Land Area Efficiency or How Many Acres per MW, kWp per Acre

A Short Science Lesson for Journalists – Watts, Kilowatts, Megawatts, Kilowatt Hours

Resources used:

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2007/02/phase-one-of-40-mw-german-solar-park-begun-47541

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moura_photovoltaic_power_station

http://www.xltelenergy.com/PRESS%20RELEASE%20170209.pdf

http://www.conergy.de/en/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-181/316_read-9306/

http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/12834

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellis_Solar_Power_Plant

Commercially Available Solar Photovoltaic Panels at $2.25

SolarByTheWatt_com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:55:54 +0000

SolarMaxDirect. Com is offering by the container solar photo voltaic panels at $2.25 delivery included. This is another development in solar prices that shows that solar can become economically very efficient and interest among industrialists will increase in building solar power.

Lowest Solar Panel Prices Per Watt 2009-04-24

SolarByTheWatt_com — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:04:57 +0000

We list the cheapest panels dollar per watt that we can find on the internet and through direct research. We also include listings of products our readers submit to us through or Contact Us form or in the comments. Representatives of the different vendors are welcome to submit info about their products too. Very differently from other “cheapest solar panels lists” out there we will not charge you for that and we will not tell you the list is already full – yep, this is what some publishers of lowest prices in solar have told some of the vendors of realistically the cheapest panels in certain sizes. Yeah, we had a good laugh listening to the story of one of the vendors here trying to get listed with a web page claiming to be a free survey of the lowest prices. While these vendors were not allowed to be listed their after being asked for money and told that the list is full already there are companies on their list that are listed twice.

Namely, different prices may reflect different quality and quality preference of the market – i.e. higher quality products may maintain relatively higher prices given all other factors being equal.

Here is or current ranking:

Monocrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, nominal voltage, technology, Brand, Model, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$3.15 / Wp, $630, 200W, 43.60V, Mono-crystalline, SMD200M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.30 / Wp, $726, 220W, 45.2V, Mono-crystalline, SMD220M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.30 / Wp, $610.50, 185W, 36V, Mono-crystalline, SMD185M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$5.03 / Wp, $1,005.00, 200W, 42V, Mono-crystalline, HIT-200BA19, Sanyo, atlE Store, http://store.altenergystore.com

$5.16 / Wp, $1,032, 200W, 55.8V, Mono-crystalline, HIP-200BA19, Sanyo, Affordable Solar Group LLC, http://www.affordable-solar.com

$5.52 / Wp, $552, 100W, 18V, Mono-crystalline, SW100C, Sunwize, atlE Store, http://store.altenergystore.com

Polycrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, nominal voltage, technology, Brand, Model, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$2.95 / Wp, $516.25, 175W, 24.2V, Poly-crystalline, SMD175P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.30 / Wp, $445.50, 135W, 20.6V, Poly-crystalline, SMD135P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.30 / Wp, $594.00, 180W, 24.2V, Poly-crystalline, SMD180P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.54 / Wp, $637, 180W, 24V, Poly-crystalline, CSI ECOSENSE CS6P-180, Canadian Solar, Affordable Solar Group LLC, http://www.affordable-solar.com

$3.56 / Wp, $142.49, 40W, 17.3V, Poly-crystalline, BP Solar, Discount Sales Electronics, http://discountsales.com

$3.94 / Wp, $630, 160W, 24.9V, Poly-crystalline, ES-160-A, Evergreen Solar, KULLY Solar, http://kullysolar.com

$4.62 / Wp, $1,016, 220W, 28.7V, Poly-crystalline, SCM220, REC Solar, Affordable Solar Group LLC, http://www.affordable-solar.com

$5.48 / Wp, $328.88, 60W, 12V, Poly-crystalline, CD Tech Solar, RV Fun Products, http://www.rvfunproducts.com

Thin-film

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, nominal voltage, technology, Brand, Model, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$3.83 / Wp, $230, 60W, 67V, Thin-film, Kaneka, GSA-60, Living Off The Grid, http://livingoffthegrid.ecrater.com

Feel free to send suggestions through comments on our articles or the Contact Us page.

Lowest Solar Panel Prices Per Watt 2009-02-24

SolarByTheWatt.com — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:29:58 +0000

We are starting this a series of articles on lowest prices per watt for solar panels, modules where every time we have changes in the price ranking we will publish a new article with corresponding date in the title.

We list the lowest prices per watt that we can find on the internet and through direct research. We do not claim at all that these are research and results of an absolute character. That is, we realize that there might be products, vendors, pricing structures for certain types of projects and quantities that we are not able to identify through our effort.

That is why nobody should get offended that their product brand or vendor company is missed in our research or they are not ranked correctly because we have not found out about their lowest, low or otherwise competitive prices.

Namely, different prices may reflect different quality and quality preference of the market – i.e. higher quality products would maintain relatively higher prices given all other factors being equal.

In any case if any one buyer or seller of solar products thinks that our best research effort has not presented certain vendors, brand or price – please, feel free to contact us and forward to us details of the the product and price we should list. We will add additional level to research that such price is being offered on regular basis and will try to reflect this in our report.

Here is or current ranking:

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, nominal voltage, technology, Brand, Model, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$2.84 / Wp, $567.60, 200W, 18.1V, Poly-crystalline, Sun-A-200, SUN, KULLY Solar, http://kullysolar.com